The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Take a look at the FORBES Power Factories list, a galaxy of brand name schools and their powerful alumni (or dropouts and honorary degrees) culled from the 71 people who make up the FORBES 2012 World's Most Powerful People list. One thing is glaringly obvious: no women are represented. The question, of course, is why. Is it really true that no powerful women attended "the schools that make people matter?" Specifically, we're talking about MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, Yale, Duke and UCLA stateside, and, overseas, Oxford and Tsinghua University.

The Power People list itself provides one answer. The cast of women, in hard numbers and percentage-wise, is quite small: just six out of 71, or 8.5%. Notably, this is up from five in 2011 and a mere three in 2010. The methodology limits contenders to people who are heads of the world's mightiest armies, countries, corporations and religions. Historically--intentional understatement alert!--men make up the vast majority of these positions. Roughly, this is the formula:

Influence over lots of people + Significant financial resources relative to their peers + Multiple spheres of influence + Active use = Most Powerful Person

Of the six who did make the the final cut, five are foreign born and educated. At No. 2, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has a doctorate from Leipzig University. Sonia Gandhi (No. 12), a native Italian, studied English in Cambridge. The IMF's Christine Lagarde (No. 38) has an advanced degree from a French University and Margaret Chan (No. 58), the Director-General of the World Health Organization, received her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario. Only HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (No. 68) was educated in the U.S.; her MBA is from University of Kansas.

There are reasons to boo and, believe or not, cheer. The boo is obvious: zero women appear on the FORBES Power Factories list. More than half of the 2012 Power People list attended the same 11 schools. The graph itself is the very picture of the old boys' network. We all know that attending one of these Ivy Leagues--in the college application lexicon, "reach schools"--goes a long way in accessing the contacts and networks that gives a person entree to elite and powerful fields and positions. But make no mistake, the six women on this list were able to gain a spot sans the Ivy League stamp of approval.